Wong Jennifer A, Arce Cardozo Rodrigo K, Lee Rebecca G, Thorpe Lorna E, Hu Jiyuan, Kwon Simona C, Trinh-Shevrin Chau, Yi Stella S
Acad Med. 2025 Aug 1;100(8):925-930. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000006071. Epub 2025 Apr 22.
Lack of federal funding for health research explicitly referencing diverse communities has led to systematic underinvestment in efforts addressing the diverse needs of underresearched populations. This report presents an overview of the Center for the Study of Asian American Health at NYU Langone (CSAAH) Pilot Project Program, which aims to eliminate health disparities and advance health equity among Asian American populations.
Established in 2003, CSAAH mentors early-stage investigators (ESIs) in performing research that builds on connections with community partners for health disparity populations. A central feature is the annual CSAAH Pilot Project Program, which mentors ESIs in health disparities research and independent funding. The program aims to increase the number of ESIs conducting health disparities research using rigorous, community-engaged, transdisciplinary approaches. This report describes the CSAAH Pilot Project Program's operations and evaluates mentee progress across 6 award cycles from September 2017 to June 2024.
Across 6 cycles (2017-2024), CSAAH supported 45 projects: 21 by postdoctoral fellows and 24 by junior faculty. Through May 2024, awardees reported receiving 67 grant awards after their pilot funding (totaling >$15.5 million), publishing 803 articles, and receiving 20 career promotions. The program was positively received by awardees and perceived to be beneficial to their careers, with most respondents (>90%) reporting that the mentored research experience improved their capacity for collaborations and knowledge and use of equity-focused methods, provided opportunities to expand their research networks, and supported their career intentions to seek and obtain external funding.
Planned refinements to the program seek to decentralize learning through multilevel mentorship and sustained engagement across past awardees and the faculty and mentorship teams by matching future awardees by self-identified content areas to senior faculty and "near-peer" ESI mentors and continuing annual follow-up through evaluation survey outreach and hosting dedicated, regular touchpoints with program alumni.
联邦政府缺乏对明确提及不同社区的健康研究的资金投入，导致在满足研究不足人群多样化需求的努力方面系统性投资不足。本报告概述了纽约大学朗格尼分校亚裔美国人健康研究中心（CSAAH）试点项目计划，该计划旨在消除健康差距，促进亚裔美国人的健康公平。
CSAAH成立于2003年，指导早期研究者（ESI）开展基于与健康差距人群社区伙伴关系的研究。一个核心特点是年度CSAAH试点项目计划，该计划指导ESI进行健康差距研究和独立资金申请。该计划旨在增加使用严谨、社区参与、跨学科方法进行健康差距研究的ESI数量。本报告描述了CSAAH试点项目计划的运作情况，并评估了2017年9月至2024年6月期间6个奖励周期内受指导者的进展。
在6个周期（2017 - 2024年）中，CSAAH支持了45个项目：21个由博士后研究员开展，24个由初级教员开展。截至2024年5月，获奖者报告称在获得试点资金后获得了67项资助奖励（总计超过1550万美元），发表了803篇文章，并获得了20次职业晋升。该计划受到获奖者的积极评价，他们认为该计划对其职业有益，大多数受访者（>90%）报告称，接受指导的研究经历提高了他们的合作能力、对以公平为重点方法的了解和运用能力，提供了扩大研究网络的机会，并支持了他们寻求和获得外部资金的职业意向。
该计划的计划改进措施旨在通过多层次指导实现学习的去中心化，并通过将未来获奖者根据自我确定的内容领域与资深教员和“近同辈”ESI导师进行匹配，以及通过评估调查外联和与项目校友定期进行专门接触来持续与过去的获奖者、教员和指导团队进行互动，并继续进行年度跟进。
